People attend a vigil to remember teenager Rehtaeh Parsons in Halifax. The high-profile deaths of Parsons in Nova Scotia, Amanda Todd in British...more

People attend a vigil to remember teenager Rehtaeh Parsons in Halifax. The high-profile deaths of Parsons in Nova Scotia, Amanda Todd in British Columbia and 15-year-old Todd Loik last month in Saskatchewan have put a national focus on teen suicides, and specifically on cyberbullying as the cause.

The high-profile deaths of Amanda Todd in British Columbia, Rehtaeh Parsons in Nova Scotia and 15-year-old Todd Loik last month in Saskatchewan have put a national focus on teen suicides, and specifically on cyberbullying as the cause.

This week, Justice Minister Peter MacKay promised “holistic legislation” that will specifically address cyberbullying through a combination of education and Criminal Code changes.

Since June 2012, Premier Christy Clark introduced the 10-point ERASE Strategy to address bullying, co-ordinators have been appointed in 60 school districts, and teachers must spend one professional development day focusing on bullying prevention. There’s a website — erasebullying.ca — and an online forum for students as well as a provincial advisory committee.

There is no argument that the deaths of those three teens were tragic and that every teen suicide is heartbreaking.

But is bullying — or even suicide — really where politicians should be focusing attention and using scarce government resources?

The report looked at the 91 B.C. children between the ages of 10 and 18 who committed suicide between 2008 and 2012 out of a youth population estimated at 450,000.

Only 12 of those 91 are known to have been bullied.

The report also notes that while on average 18 B.C. youth commit suicide each year, 120 die accidentally.

That said, suicide here and around the world is the second leading cause of death for youths aged 15 to 19. But, the numbers are low and over the past 30 years have fallen slightly.

Still, the rare, widely reported suicides are attention-getters, especially when it seems they can be blamed on shady, unknown tormentors who stalk and convince vulnerable teens that death is the only possible escape.

As the B.C. report notes, child and youth suicides are “complex phenomenon.”

But troubling numbers both in this report and others suggest that we do know which kids are most at risk.

They are youth with mental disorders and addictions, LGBT youth, children who have grown up in government care and, by an order of anywhere from two to six times more than the rest of the population, aboriginal children.

It’s not information that’s lacking, it’s action.

Why? Because those kids aren’t the best poster children.

Because mental health and addictions are difficult and expensive problems to tackle, to say nothing of unravelling the dysfunction and despair in First Nations communities, which are the legacy of residential schools.

Because it’s much easier to put on a pink shirt and talk about bullying.

Which is not to say that bullying doesn’t need to be addressed. But is it the most pressing issue?

In November, Turpel-Lafond’s review of 15 youth suicides and 74 self-harm incidents between June 2007 and June 2010 was equally blunt and revealing.

Eight of the 15 youth who committed suicide were aboriginal; 44 of 74 kids who harmed themselves were aboriginal.

All 89 youth had received help from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, 78 had been in government care at some point and 58 were in government care when they harmed or killed themselves.

More shockingly, the youth in care had been wards of the government for roughly half their lives and had moved on average 12 times. Five of them had been moved more than 30 times.

Not once in either report did Turpel-Lafond mention bullying.

What she did mention is that there is that “a single set of core services does not exist across the province. What is available in each region, and in some cases each community, is different … this can lead to frustration and difficulties for desperate families in need of help.”

The Ministry of Children and Family Development is doing yet another review of child and youth mental health services that, among other things, will look at access.

And while hand-wringing experts repeatedly warn journalists against writing about youth suicides because of the potential for copy-cats — a claim that the coroner’s report dismisses — the problem may be that we don’t write about suicide and its underlying causes often enough.